Defenders of Michael Jackson

Moonwalking – The True Story of Michael Jackson

I have found a positive documentary about MJ that was filmed last year! It’s called “Moonwalking – The True Story of Michael Jackson”, and it’s amazing! This isn’t just another “he came, he saw, he conquered” retrospective, but it’s something that attempts to (and succeeds at!) “humanizing” MJ by making viewers feel empathy and compassion for him.

There are a group of writers and psychologists who explain MJ’s desire to be philanthropic, his dedication to improving the lives of underprivileged children, his mental scarring due to the abuse he suffered at the hands of his father (e.g. getting plastic surgery to look less like his father), his shyness due to always being in the public spotlight, his forgiving personality (e.g. he forgive both his father & Latoya), and his respect and admiration for the women in his life (such as his mother, Elizabeth Taylor, and Princess Diana). They don’t try to condescendingly psychoanalyze every decision he ever made in his life, and there is a respectful tone to their diagnosis of him. (Unlike so-called psychiatrist Dr. Carole Lieberman, who helped phantom victim Daniel Kapon “remember” that he was abused by MJ, and tried to get MJ’s kids taken away after the baby dangling incident.)

I truly wish that more documentaries like this could be made, and I’m going to try to get every MJ blog to post these links, because the fans need to see this!

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

Part 4: There is a quote in this clip that jumped out at me, and I want to address it here. Don’t worry, its not negative! In fact, it’s very positive, but nevertheless it has to be addressed. At 5:20 the psychologist makes the following quote: “I think the press and the media probably has a lot to answer for. He was tried under a court of law and found not guilty, and so for me that means that he was not guilty.”

That is the WORST possible thing that you can say in defense of MJ! The courts are NOT perfect, and as we all know, guilty people get acquitted all the time, and innocent people get convicted all the time! If you say this to an MJ hater, then they’ll say (and we’ve ALL heard this a gazillion times already) “Well, OJ Simpson was also acquitted too, and we all know he was guilty!” This is why you have to learn the facts of the allegations so that you can properly refute the lies that MJ haters are certain to use against him (for example “He paid off the Chandlers in 1993!” My recent article on the settlements clearly debunks that! Here is part 1. Here is part 2.) Thankfully, there are dozens of websites (like this one!), books, and documentaries dedicated to exonerating MJ of those charges!

I’m with @nenabunena entirely. One of these female psychologists in the doc even suggests that the baby-dangling might have been intentional as an attention-getting ploy. And even though these people knew about the vitiligo and lupus they suggest Michael changed his color on purpose because he wanted to look different. Also, they suggest that Michael made up his accusation against Mottola (MJ said he’s a racist, but he isn’t). Though their intentions were good, they didn’t have all the facts, and a lot of what they said was gleaned from the tabloids and then explained and reinterpreted in accordance to their understanding of Michael’s psychology. They even suggest Michael used prescription drugs to get high, and that he suffered from a personality disorder. Well-meaning, but disappointing and inaccurate.

I disagree that this is a good documentary, it has too much in it that I have a problem with. It’s not only the excessive surgeries linked to a supposed disorder called DD, not only that little statement about the trial & guilt, not only about the albums’ successes, but also about Tommy Mottolla & Sony. Now, I’m not a TINI & in fact I’m a very big supporter of the estate & any official MJ products they come out with, so I’m not one to target a corp like Sony indiscriminately. But so many assumptions on this documentary are baed on the tabloid & media’s assumptions. I feel like if we are going to make assumptions, especially when it’s about MJ, a more positive & understanding outlook is best. MJ has been very very quiet about racial issues he has personally experienced before the Motolla scenario. But if you’ve read articles or stories about him, you realize that he knew all of it 1st hand, front & center but he CHOSE not to air it publicly until Motolla. We see it when they 1st moved to Encino, we see it when Off the Wall was dismissed as just an R&B (BLACK) album, we see it in Bad, the aftermath of Thriller & the heads deciding that this Black artist had enough recognition & needed no more positive acclamations, we saw it in Rolling Stones mag & MTV, we saw it in their so-called ‘self-acclaimed King of Pop’, we saw it when everyone took Paul McCartney’s side of events against MJ, we saw it on how Sneddon was backed up time & again, we saw it, we see it in the desire of so many to calling him bankrupt, debt ridden & broke, & we see it time & again. This IMO was not a little sheep boy crying foul where none is found, I do believe that he in fact got unfair treatment due to Motolla. We hear it from Sony insiders & we hear it coming from a man who has never ever publicly made false cries against people in the public arena, yet he is questioned the 1 time he has come out on it.

This documentary acknowledges he had both Lupus & Vitiligo yet they tackle his changing color to a desire of himself to change himself, like he had a choice to not have Vitiligo. They make the same allegations as others, that MJ had BDD, yet I see nothing that supports this as I see nothing that supports that MJ bleached himself White because he hated being Black. The scarf that MJ wears – MJ himself explains this in an interview, it has to do with his Vitiligo & sensitivity to the sun – yet even his so-called close friends don’t seem aware about it. I do think MJ sometimes said things to those around him not necessarily the full truth, to dismiss or void lengthy explanations, or because they were never really ‘close’ to begin with, or BOTH. Wearing the mask to hide himself from the paparazzi is a plausible one, I certainly buy it but I think it was just a supporting factor as to why he wore it. I used to go hiking or camping all the time & I’m from the Philippines, & the sun here is scorching. & during those times, you rarely use your umbrella, you use a cap, you cover yourself from head to foot, & you try to cover the rest of your face with sunglasses & a scarf similar to what MJ did. His explanation is the most plausible & credible IMO, & no supporting featured ‘explanations’ should impose upon it.

The best MJ documentary that I’ve seen is Michael Jackson – A Remarkable Life that came out in 2003, one of the guys being interviewed even broke down when he talked of the meaning & depth of Michael’s music.

Here’s another interesting documentary on Michael. It examines Michael’s influence on black culture but also explores the complicate relationship Michael had with the black community.

A few major issues with this doc are the insinuations that Michael’s career was “over” after the Dangerous album and that his kids were white.

None of us know whether or not his kids are white. We haven’t performed DNA tests to confirm that a white man fathered them.

Secondly, Michael continued on to release the HIStory album, a best seller. He also released Blood Is On The Dance Floor & Invincible (a #1 album). Michael would NOT have sold out 50 concerts at 02 arena if his career was “over”.

The critics, detractors, & medialoid personalities WANTED his career to be over. That simply wasn’t the case. Remember how Evan Chandler said Michael wouldn’t sell another record. He was WRONG too.